The first revenue flight using a Douglas DC-3 aircraft, which took place on 15 October of that year, was a flowers transport to Nice via Paris. In 1947, scheduled flights from Brusselsto Elizabethville in Belgian Congo were launched on behalf of several companies in the Belgian colony, which held the majority of the stakes in the company. In 1949, these shares were acquired by Belgian flag carrier
Sabena, which thus owned 72,29 percent in Sobelair. When Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville) was founded as an independent state in the former Belgian Congo, Sobelair ceased its African service, and concentrated on offering chartered holiday flights to the Mediterranean instead. Sobelair joined the jet age in 1971, when the first Caravelle was acquired. Over the following years, the fleet was further modernized with Boeing 707 aircraft, which stayed until 1981. By then, Sobelair operated a fleet composed exclusively of smaller Boeing 737 airliners. Long haul flights were relaunched only in 1994, using a newly bought Boeing 767-300. After having been acquired by a group of investors in June 2002, which led to the launch of scheduled flights on the Brussels-Johannesburg route, Sobelair was passed on to SN Brussels Airlines in early 2003, for which it operated charter flights henceforth. This did not lead to an improvement of the financial situation, so that Sobelair had to declare bankruptcy in early January 2004. On 19 January, Sobelair went out of business and its approximately 450 employees lost their jobs.
